SARASOTA — A quiet Sarasota afternoon turned into a grim second chapter of a cross-state killing spree on Tuesday, when four people were found shot to death inside a home in the Amberlea gated community and the suspected shooter was discovered dead by his own hand.
Just before 12:30 p.m., neighbors in Amberlea near Proctor and McIntosh roads dialed 911 after hearing gunshots. First responders found a man wounded in the front yard, where neighbors had been performing CPR. He later died. Inside the home, deputies located four more bodies — all shot — and among them was 51-year-old Russell Kot, the man believed to have carried out the attacks.
The Sarasota victims — Olga Greinert, Florita Stolyar, Anatoly Ioffe, and Yaroslav Blyudoy — spanned generations and backgrounds. Their lives, full of everyday joys and community ties, were cut cruelly short just as winter tourists began to trickle back into town.
What investigators describe as a linked double homicide earlier that day in Fort Lauderdale provides the tragic prelude to the Sarasota deaths. Around 1:30 p.m., police conducting a welfare check in the Victoria Park neighborhood found Larisa Blyudaya, 46, and Ben Azivov, 18, shot to death inside their home. Surveillance footage later showed a vehicle matching Kot’s entering the Sarasota neighborhood hours before the Amberlea shootings.
Fort Lauderdale authorities say Kot and one of the Fort Lauderdale victims had been in a prior romantic relationship. That victim had connections to the Sarasota community. Detectives are still exploring how those links led to such a deadly outcome but have not publicly identified a clear motive beyond those personal ties.
Witnesses in Sarasota recounted the harrowing moment they realized something was wrong, the sounds of violence echoing through a normally peaceful street. Families ran toward their doors, others rushed to aid the man in the front yard, and neighbors waited helplessly for answers that took hours to come.
Law enforcement agencies from both counties are coordinating their investigations, urging anyone with information to step forward. For residents still reeling, the focus remains on honoring the memories of those lost and supporting the families left behind.
This week’s events underscore how quickly life can change and how deeply the reverberations of violence can travel — from one home to another, across miles and hearts alike.
